Clemson U Installs Dell High-Performance Computing Cluster

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 06/05/08

Clemson University has gone public with its use of a high-performance computing cluster (HPCC) from Dell to enable academic research on topics ranging from how family migration patterns impact schools and children's development to the design of wireless communication networks.

The supercomputer, known as the Palmetto Cluster, is housed at the South Carolina school's Information Technology Center and comprises 512 Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers with Intel Quad-Core processors. Dell has worked with researchers at the university to build the cluster, currently benchmarked at 31 teraflops. It's expected to grow to 100 Tflops.

"The Palmetto Cluster is a shared computing infrastructure offering enhanced computational research capabilities that will benefit our entire research community," said Jim Bottum, Clemson's vice provost and CIO. "A system of this class from Dell, combined with quality research faculty, highly-trained support staff and world-class operations, is providing Clemson with a cyberinfrastructure for the future."

The research enabled by the Palmetto Cluster already covers a wide range of disciplines, from cross-layer protocol design of wireless communication networks to simulations in molecular dynamics and developmental studies with children.